School, decisions, news and painting.

Eldest is officially enrolled in one of the local high schools, not a school I am excited about, which I find a little tough, but..............well..............we'll wait and see.

As I was handing in my thousand and one photocopies (of which I had everything asked for and then some) I also handed them a notice, in Catalan, from the local hydro company about how the excessive use and abuse of paper is harming our world.

Sadly, she just looked confused.

*sigh*

I went in the hills walking the Chuckster...goodness I like having a dog much more than I ever thought would be possible. I was irritated with myself for walking in our beautiful hills with only a week and a half till we leave for the summer, on a spectacular day and having my head down the entire time fussing about all the crap I am trying to deal with right now.

I COULD not get my head to stop talking. I am not a great Buddhist, so what usually works for me is to stop everything and work it through till I have a plan. That is just what I did. There is a lovely rock in the hills, well, there are several, but it is a logical stopping place for us, so I cushioned my head with my jacket and lay back gazing at the branches over my head and said I wouldn't leave till I had a plan. Chuck curled up beside me, all cozied in, and I worked it out.

Aside from the giant bureaucracy chase I am running, this summer is not knitting together neatly at all, and I am feeling very torn by the demands on me. I simply cannot make everyone happy, so what I essentially did was decide WHO I was going to try hardest to help out, who less so, and who to kindly let down...no one fortunately, but I have made some decisions. Then I was OK....I came home and started putting things into place and I am much happier for that. I cannot say that Chuck really contributed to the dialogue, but it was really really nice to have his company.

I am also feeling crappy because we're leaving him here this year, I won't see him for two and a half months and I feel like a jerk. He's going to be really upset.

Enough whinging.

I was also thinking today about various media outlets: the man tends to prefer the traditional media, for the last several years primarily radio...we don't own a TV, newspaper delivery when traveling on a boat is tricky, and the radio is free, and doesn't add to the garbage or recycling.

I chiefly read blogs. A range of blogs. Strangely enough I find I am generally as up to date as he is....maybe not quite as globally, but in the last couple of days I had heard about the heat in Canada and Northern Europe, and I had heard about the upcoming transit strikes in Europe (all but public transit stopped). I also have read insider's reports about the elections and subsequent chaos in Kenya, the goings on in Burkina Faso, and issues pertaining to the American military presence in Iraq.

It is interesting that there is this entire new field of news sources, self-published, self-edited and openly available. If you read widely enough, there is a balance of views from which you can make your decision; I never like simply parroting the editorials, but prefer to look at the primary material and make up my own mind thankyouverymuch. It is fascinating, the un-agenda-ed, or at least micro-agenda-ed writing that you find in blogs. We do not write in fear of the advertiser's opinions, nor the editor's, nor the newspaper or radio station owner's either.

I find it an entrancing sideways slide into what is going on in the world.

Here at last, for me anyway, are some updates on the painting front, and if I can ever get off the bureaucratic paper-chasing merry-go-round, I might actually finish something before I have to leave.

That would be nice.


This one hasn't changed that much, I have toned down the frame and the background, and I have to trim it so it is centered, as the man pointed out..good think I am a teacher not a NASA scientist, or a tool and die maker....

This blue one changed a bit more, please be forgiving these are works in progress. I will be painting a focus piece on, a fish...this is not how I normally work, but this piece is homework for an on-line painting class.

The one below I have dubbed the monster, and I am really going to have to pull something out of the hat to save it, it is very heavily textured and not really laying back at all.

Please remember that they are works in progress and it is kind of making my throat go tight to post the photos up...I am much less happy with the photos than with where I am going to try an make them go, which unfortunately you cannot see.

The painting below I did finish. Eldest called it kitchy, the man said it was top heavy. I really like it; so there. It comes from something I saw while the man and I were walking around in a small town in Andalucia one day this Christmas, so maybe I haven't conveyed that, but I like it.

Do I sound defensive or what?

Time for bed, hope you had a lovely, bureaucracy-free day.